With 21.02.0, Netgear WNDR4300 is missing phy1

lupe · September 24, 2021, 9:13pm

Simply put, this is from 18.06.2:

[   11.517994] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
[   11.518004] ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
[   11.518008] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   11.518022] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   11.518028] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[   11.518032] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   11.530556] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   11.534557] ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9340 Rev:2 mem=0xb8100000, irq=47
[   11.541520] PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
[   11.573988] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
[   11.573997] ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
[   11.574001] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   11.574017] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   11.574022] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[   11.574026] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   11.584483] ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   11.588594] ieee80211 phy1: Atheros AR9300 Rev:4 mem=0xb0000000, irq=40

and this is from 21.02.0:

[   14.787968] ath: EEPROM regdomain sanitized
[   14.787980] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x64
[   14.787985] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
[   14.788009] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
[   14.788013] ath: Regpair used: 0x64
[   14.801490] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   14.803846] ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9340 Rev:2 mem=0xb8100000, irq=12

I don't use the WLAN part of the router (that's why the country is not configured), so it does not hurt me. But I believe other people may mind...

I should add that these are two WNDR4300's, so it is possible that the missing phy1 is due to a hardware difference or failure.

anon89577378 · September 24, 2021, 10:44pm

You can't upgrade directly to 21.02.0 from 18.06.

lupe · September 24, 2021, 11:03pm

I never upgrade, I always do a fresh installation and then do all the changes required. This was shortly after I began to replicate the old configuration from the old router.

And why would the 21.02.0 kernel (5.4.143) not see hardware the ancient 18.06.2 kernel (4.9.152) sees? A kernel upgrade always replaces all kernel files. And kernel modules from the old kernel, if they survived, would be in a different directory (/lib/modules/4.9.152/ vs /lib/modules/5.4.143/), and even if the old kernel module(s) would be used, why would they see only one PHY after the upgrade I did not do?

Please try again. I'm not so stupid as you assume.

anon89577378 · September 25, 2021, 12:02am

That would have been nice to know up front.

Given your attitude, I think it's a "you problem".

lupe · September 25, 2021, 8:54am

I will leave it at that and not reply. This is getting nowhere, so let's stop it here.

badulesia · September 25, 2021, 3:35pm

If you didn't upgrade, how did you install 21.02 ?

lupe · September 25, 2021, 4:34pm

Standard TFTP method:

/usr/local/scripts/openwrt-install-tftp:

#!/bin/bash

ADDR=$1
IMAGE=$2

if [ -z "$ADDR" -o -z "$IMAGE" ]; then
        echo "Usage: $0 addr image"
        exit 1
fi

DIR=`dirname $IMAGE`
IMAGE=`basename $IMAGE`
cd $DIR

tftp $ADDR <<EOT
binary
rexmt 1
timeout 60
trace
put $IMAGE
EOT

/usr/local/scripts/openwrt-install-tftp 192.168.1.1 /sw/archive/OpenWRT+LEDE/OpenWRT-21.02.0/openwrt-21.02.0-ath79-nand-netgear_wndr4300-squashfs-factory.img

badulesia · September 25, 2021, 4:39pm

Ok, perfect.
Doing so no settings were kept during process.
Do you have this issue on both devices or just one ?
Did you try to reverse the faulty device to 18.06 (and 19.07) in order to check if phy1 appears ?
Atheros wlan uses a partition named ART for wifi purpose. And I have found recently the the partition layout changed for this device in 21.02. There may be a relationship.

lupe · September 25, 2021, 5:17pm

[quote="badulesia, post:8, topic:107371, full:true"]
Do you have this issue on both devices or just one ?[/quote]
I normally keep one running the old version and build a new router on the other. So I have not tried the other and I'm reluctant to do that.

I'll do check that now.

[quote\Atheros wlan uses a partition named ART for wifi purpose. And I have found recently the the partition layout changed for this device in 21.02. There may be a relationship.[/quote]
/proc/mtd 18.06:

dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00040000 00020000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00040000 00020000 "u-boot-env"
mtd2: 00040000 00020000 "caldata"
mtd3: 00080000 00020000 "pot"
mtd4: 00200000 00020000 "language"
mtd5: 00080000 00020000 "config"
mtd6: 00300000 00020000 "traffic_meter"
mtd7: 00200000 00020000 "kernel"
mtd8: 01700000 00020000 "ubi"
mtd9: 01900000 00020000 "firmware"
mtd10: 00040000 00020000 "caldata_backup"
mtd11: 06000000 00020000 "reserved"

/proc/mtd 21.02:

dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00040000 00020000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00040000 00020000 "u-boot-env"
mtd2: 00040000 00020000 "caldata"
mtd3: 00080000 00020000 "pot"
mtd4: 00200000 00020000 "language"
mtd5: 00080000 00020000 "config"
mtd6: 00300000 00020000 "traffic_meter"
mtd7: 00400000 00020000 "kernel"
mtd8: 01500000 00020000 "ubiconcat0"
mtd9: 01900000 00020000 "firmware"
mtd10: 00040000 00020000 "caldata_backup"
mtd11: 06000000 00020000 "ubiconcat1"
mtd12: 07500000 00020000 "ubi"

And here is the diff:

9,10c9,10
< mtd7: 00200000 00020000 "kernel"
< mtd8: 01700000 00020000 "ubi"
---
> mtd7: 00400000 00020000 "kernel"
> mtd8: 01500000 00020000 "ubiconcat0"
13c13,14
< mtd11: 06000000 00020000 "reserved"
---
> mtd11: 06000000 00020000 "ubiconcat1"
> mtd12: 07500000 00020000 "ubi"

mtd7 and mtd8 together have the same size, so mtd9 starts at the same offset. mtd11 is only renamed and (I'm very grateful for that) it is lumped together with mtd8 to give a much larger /ovcerlay (just short of 100 MB). mtd12 is new and I don't know what it is used for. I haven't found a good explanation of the UBI commands. and the data structure.

So "firmware" should not have been touched.

I'll back up my configuration changes and install 18.06. The image is still around.

lupe · September 25, 2021, 5:22pm

Small update. I just found /lib/firmware/ath9k-eeprom-ahb-18100000.wmac.bin. Now I'm a little suspicious if that includes firmware for the AR9340 and the AR9300. @badulesia, do you happen to know?

lupe · September 25, 2021, 5:54pm

I just remembered that initially, there was a problem with the WNDR4300's 5 GHz radio.

I never encountered this, but, as I said, I don't use the WLAN on the box anymore. Alas, /dev/mem disappeared, so I can't do that check. The article suggests to just configure radio1 in /etc/config/wireless, but that also does not work. And it says

And that just worked! (Smashes hand to forehead repeatedly)

I had the device off for hours and the phy1 never came up. It seems that leaving it off for just a few minutes does the trick.

Thanks for setting me on this track.

rwl408 · September 25, 2021, 6:17pm

My WNDR4300 had this problem too. Happened about 1 out of 3 reboots. That was why I disposed it on Craigslist eventually.

lupe · September 25, 2021, 6:41pm

I rebooted to install 18.06 and again to switch back to 21.02. And just for grins and giggles, I did it again a few times. The problem indeed occurs with both 18.06 and 21.02, and occurs frequently enough to warrant a Craigslist entry if you reboot often. And need the WLAN capability, which I fortunately don't. I'm using a Fritzbox as a DECT/VoIP server and that has WiFi 5.

So I'll retire this thread and hope that other people who run into the same problem find it.
The other box does not have the problem. So I'll keep this thread open until I have switched to the new 21.02 box and run a few tests with 21.02 on the "old" one.

badulesia · September 25, 2021, 7:14pm

Well, you seem to know rather well your business by yourself !